Problem: Wearable technology (also called “wearables”) are expensive and limited only to watches or glasses today.
Solution: A wearables company that takes an unconventional view of wearables: rather than trying to create smart shirts, smart shoes, smart watches, and more, the company instead invests in inserts that can be inserted into existing “dumb” hardware to turn it into smart hardware. One great example of a product is Adidas’ partnership with Google to create the GMR Insole for Soccer Cleats. The insert allows your soccer cleats to collect data and level up your characters from your online EA Sports FIFA account. Watch a short video of this extremely cool product.
A brief description of the product is that:
The Jacquard tag is outfitted with a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a small processor capable of running on-device machine learning that can differentiate soccer-specific movements. It's able to measure the number of kicks, shot speed, run speed, and total distance run.
Extrapolating this product into a business, the billion-dollar hardware company would create inserts that could be put into existing clothing to generate the same insights that a more expensive “wearable” would deliver. It would focus on reducing costs by only shipping customers what is absolutely necessary to create a wearable: the silicon that enables data capture from real-world interactions.
Monetization: Selling the inserts to end users that allow them to create wearables and creating targeted advertising based on data collected from the inserts.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)